IMPHAL, July 29: Even though it would take some time, government efforts are on to implement the National Food Security Act in the State at the earliest, said M Okendro, government spokesperson and Education and Consumers Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (CAF and PD) Minister.
The Minister stated that under the initiatives of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the State Government under the leadership of Chief Minister is chalking out action plans to implement the Act in the State.
He further said that the government would take some time as it needs to specify the number of beneficiaries who are going to enjoy certain privileges under the Act.
Other than this act till now the government has been providing benefits in the form of APL and BPL categories, he said.
However, the National Food Security Act is slated to provide 5 kgs of rice to every person that would be calculated to the total numbers of person in a family.
According to data reports of the government, there are 3, 75,920 APL families, 1,002,400 BPL families and 63, 500 families and according to census report of 2011, there are 5, 41,920 households in the State, he said.
Moreover, States where the Act will be implemented is also divided into three categories namely State-A, State-B and State-C, he said.
For States covered under State-A, the respective States would incur the required amount while for State-B, the Central Government would expense 50 percent share amount and for State-C, the central government would expense 75 percent share amount, he said.
The Minister further disclosed that the State Government would need to spend around Rs 1, 25, 000 crores yearly to implement the act effectively.
However, since the act is slated to be implemented in the State soon, an official proposal from the State Government side would be sent to Union Ministry.
Though some amount of time would take to implement the act, steps are being taken up to implement the act successfully in the State, he added.
